Professional Development


4 Models for Competency-Based Education

The challenge for CBE proponents, according to a new report, is that districts and schools are making the transition to this model of instruction and learning "through different entry points and roll-out strategies," resulting in "significant variation" in the education itself. "To a degree, these differences can be traced to regional priorities and needs," the report noted. Others, however, are a result of how well or poorly people understand what they're doing.

Digital Promise Digital Badge Platform Offers 282 Micro-Credentials

Micro-credentials, also known as digital badges, allow people to express their competency in a specific skill. In the education arena, schools and districts have begun promoting the credentials as a way for teachers and others to gain professional learning in discrete topics and practices.

Online Non-Profit University Offers Teacher Training Scholarships

Western Governors University made the offer for people who want to earn their bachelor's or master's degree in education and aren't already enrolled there.

D2L Pursues Usage for LMS as K–12 PD Platform

Learning management company D2L has tweaked its learning management system to accommodate professional development management for K–12 teachers as well. In April the company announced a similar offering for the higher education edition of its cloud-based Brightspace platform. Among the features: a dashboard to manage teacher PD and new kinds of assessment support.

Teachers Too Busy to Collaborate

While collaboration is a 21st century skill for students, teachers aren't modeling the behavior much. In a typical month, 44 percent will never visit another teacher's classroom in the same school to get ideas for instruction or offer feedback.

Partnership Aims to Create STEM Teacher Pipeline

The University of California, Riverside, and the Riverside Unified School District (RUSD) have partnered on an initiative to attract new STEM teachers to the California district.

Amazon Pumping $50 Million into CS Education

Amazon is committing $50 million to computer science education in the United States with new programs supporting high school and early undergraduate students, including financial aid to help schools bring AP CS courses to their students.

NSF Grant to Cover Master Degrees in STEM Teaching and Bonuses

The $2.8 million from the National Science Foundation will cover tuition and fees for teachers working in middle and high schools to earn their master of education degrees with an emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math; they'll also receive a $10,000 annual stipend for four years afterwards to train other teachers in schools serving populations of students who are under-represented in the STEM fields.

Agentic Launches Grant for Student-Centered Learning

Agentic Learning has launched a new competitive grant program offering two districts consulting, leadership coaching and software access designed to support the development of student-centered approaches to learning.

New Project Launches Global Standards for Flipped Training

The Flipped Learning Global Initiative has introduced a new effort to establish international standards for flipped training. The standards are meant to ensure that educators are trained using the most current global research and best practices in flipped learning, according to a news announcement.

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